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Obama To Republican Critics On Immigration: 'Pass A Bill'

U.S.
President Barack Obama pauses while speaking about immigration
reform during a visit to Del Sol High School in Las Vegas,
NevadaThomson
Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama shrugged off
criticism of his executive action on immigration with a challenge
to House of Representatives Republicans: if you don't like it, do
something.

Obama was asked in an interview broadcast on Sunday about House
Speaker John Boehner's assertion that he was acting like an
emperor in using executive powers to tackle the issue of the 11
million immigrants living in America without documents.

"Well, my response is pass a bill," Obama said in the interview
with ABC's "This Week," which was taped on Friday. "Congress has
a responsibility to deal with these issues and there are some
things that I can’t do on my own."

Obama announced on Thursday he was easing the threat of
deportation for millions of undocumented immigrants. His measures
include allowing some 4.4 million people who are parents of U.S.
citizens and legal permanent residents and who have been in the
country for five years to remain in the country temporarily, with
the right to work.

In the ABC interview, Obama, who has long said he preferred
legislation to unilateral action, cited a bipartisan immigration
bill passed by the U.S. Senate last year and urged the House to
take it up.

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He said Boehner still had several weeks to bring the bill before
the House or could work with Democrats to craft a new one,
according to an ABC transcript of the interview.

Boehner has not given any indication he will act on immigration
this year. Republicans will dominate the new Congress in January
after seizing control of the Senate from Democrats and increasing
their hold on the House of Representatives in Nov. 4 midterm
elections.

Senator Jeff Flake, a Republican backer of the Senate bill, said
he did not believe Obama's actions were unconstitutional but said
they would make it harder for Republicans and Democrats to reach
a deal on immigration reform.

"It's not that he did something that we wouldn't have done
otherwise - it’s the way he went about it," he told NBC's "Meet
the Press."

Democratic Senator Bob Mendendez said Obama's actions did not
make the need for immigration reform any less pressing and said
the House should pass the Senate bill.

"They still have time to pass that bill," he told the NBC
program. "There's still clearly a persistent, urgent need to do
that."